Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: :: FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS :: :: 



Vol. V. ] 



JUNE, 1913. 



[No. 6. 



Man's Account with the Plume-Trade. 



In much that has been written and said 

 on the subject of the trade in birds' 

 feathers, stress has been laid on the huge 

 and reckless obliteration of exceptionally 

 beautiful birds, and on the cruelty in- 

 volved in destroying them in the breeding- 

 time. But comparatively Uttle attention 

 has been given to the human side of the 

 account. This is well worth considering. 

 Not indeed the profits of importers and 

 dealers, for these, though of course at 

 the back of the whole matter, concern an 

 exceedingly small body of the community ; 

 but certain bye-results of the trade which 

 have a far-reaching and incalculable in- 

 fluence not only in the lands where the 

 feathers are obtained, but also in those 

 which receive and prepare and sell them. 

 In the first place, the countries of pro- 

 duction may be considered. Twenty 

 years ago, British India was a favourite 

 land of the plume-hunter, and hardly a 

 year went by without reports reaching the 

 local governments of the price that India 

 was paying for him. Complaints were 

 made of insect-attacks on aU kinds of 

 crops, attacks by locusts, attacks by the 

 borer-fly on coffee plantations, attacks 

 by caterpillars on the cinchona, attacks 

 by other insects on rice and cotton fields. 

 Such insect pests could be dealt with only 

 by birds, and the birds were being swept 

 away for the plume -markets. The pas- 

 sion and, for the time being, the pay for 

 killing became a better trade than food- 



growing ; small agriculturists sold their 

 ploughs to secure money wherewith to 

 buy guns. Moreover the game-birds, 

 Jungle-Cock, Peafowl, and Imperial 

 Pigeon, were being exterminated by 

 destruction in the breeding-time. India, 

 as one of the Indian newspapers pointed 

 out at the time, was paying for women's 

 feathers by a sacrifice of human food, the 

 material of human raiment, loss to the 

 State, and penury to the individual. For 

 this expenditure the Plume Trade was 

 responsible. India had a strong Govern- 

 ment, and the question was dealt with 

 firmly and simply by prohibition. 



The greatest of all hunting-grounds for 

 the White Egret, to furnish the " osprey " 

 of commerce, was formerly Florida. The 

 birds existed in millions ; they were 

 practically extirpated by the plume- 

 hunters, who in spite of prohibition and 

 of Wardens are still ready to poimce upon 

 any insufficiently protected colony and 

 to destroy it. At the present time the 

 food-crops of Florida and Greorgia, Caro- 

 Hna and Louisiana, and other States, are 

 suffering every year for want of the 

 insect-eating herons. 



In other countries the effect of killing 

 the birds is similar ; in those at present 

 uncultivated a harvest of plagues is being 

 provided for the cultivator of the future, 

 a harvest of pests and disease-carriers for 

 the colonist. Sir Harry Johnston has 

 given his warning with regard to insect 



